Andrea Martin

Andrea Martin stars in McNeal on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theater from September 5 to November 24, 2024.

Andrea Louise Martin was born on January 15, 1947 in Portland, Maine. She is a two-time Tony Award-winning Broadway favorite whose credits include Noises Off, Pippin, Young Frankenstein, Oklahoma!, Candide, and My Favorite Year, among others. She is also known for her TV appearances on shows such as SCTV and Great News and films such as Hedwig and the Angry Inch and the My Big Fat Greek Wedding franchise.

Martin attended Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, and was cast in a touring production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown following graduation. She moved to Toronto in 1970, and during the following decade she would find work in a Canadian production of Godspell, two horror films (1973’s Cannibal Girls and 1974’s Black Christmas) and the popular SCTV series. She would appear in a variety of roles in the comedy sketch series (including as Second City Television station manager Edith Prickley) and was also a valued member of the writing team, which racked up a grand total of nine Emmy Award nominations in 1982 and 1983, winning two. Martin herself also earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Variety or Music Series in 1982.

Martin burst onto the Broadway stage in 1992, officially making her Broadway debut in My Favorite Year, playing the role of Alice Miller from October 1992 through to January 1993 for Lincoln Center Theater. For her show-stealing performance she earned her first Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, and a Theatre World Award. Her next three Broadway outings would be roles in musical revivals, originating the roles of the Old Lady in Candide in the spring of 1997 and Aunt Eller in Oklahoma! in the spring of 2002, earning her second and third Tony Award nominations in the process, and finally assuming the role of Golde in Fiddler on the Roof from January to July 2005. From October 2007 she starred in Mel Brooks’ musical comedy Young Frankenstein, receiving a fourth Tony Award nomination in 2008 for her portrayal of Frau Blucher, and in the spring of 2009 she added a straight play to her Broadway résumé with the role of Juliette in a revival of Exit the King. She returned to musicals in the winter of late 2012, originating the role of Berthe in the pre-Broadway tryout of Pippin at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The revival transferred to Broadway in March 2013, and her performance won her a second Tony Award and Drama Desk Award that summer. She continued in the role until September 2013, reprised the role on Broadway in September 2014, and held it once more on the national tour from October to November 2014. Between these engagements, she also found time to star in James Lapine’s Act One for Lincoln Center Theater from March to June 2014. She made her Roundabout Theatre Company debut in the Broadway revival of Michael Frayn’s Noises Off from December 2015 through to March 2016 and earned her sixth Tony Award nomination for her performance as Dotty Otley. She was scheduled to return to Broadway to star alongside Nathan Lane in the world premiere of Taylor Mac's new comedy Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus in the spring of 2019, but she had to withdraw last-minute due to injury.

On screen, aside from her work on SCTV, Martin has notably appeared in recurring roles in such series as Roxie, The Martin Short Show, Damon, George and Martha, Working the Engels, and, most recently, as Marilyn Kessler on Hulu’s Difficult People, as Carol Wendelson on NBC’s Great News, and as Francesca Lovatelli on CBS’s The Good Fight. Her many film credits include Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Producers, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, and the role of Aunt Vuola in My Big Fat Greek Wedding and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.

Martin returned to Broadway to star as the Ghost of Christmas Past in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the Lyceum Theatre from November 7, 2019 through January 5, 2020.